Western Medieval Manuscripts : Medical recipes and charms

Western Medieval Manuscripts

The contents of the manuscript comprise simple, practical medicine: somewhat more than two hundred recipes, written in Middle English, as well as some charms in Middle English or Latin (see ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(60);return false;'>28r-29r</a>), including a Latin charm for making an apotropaic amulet called the Seal of Solomon ('Sigillum Salamonis'). In numerous instances, these correspond - though not always precisely - with recipes and charms found in other compilations made in the 15th century, pointing not only to their widespread circulation in a number of manuscript forms, but also to a complex history of textual transmission, selection and emendation (for example comparisons and further discussion, see the introduction to <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-EMMANUEL-COLLEGE-00095/1'>Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 95</a>). The first complete recipe in the present manuscript (preceding 'For a man þat spekyth in his slepe' on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(8);return false;'>3r</a>) lacks its rubric, but reading the text it is clear that it concerns dental care. The reader is instructed to burn a green branch of broom, grind the results into a powder and mix it with a powder of burned alum 'the fourth part' (meaning, perhaps, to use a quarter of the quantity of the broom powder). They should be mixed well and tempered with fresh water: 'Frote ofte the teþe þerwith' and any blackness shall be removed, it concludes. It must have been preceded by another recipe for the same issue, since it begins 'Also'. Only the last three words of the preceding recipe remain - '[and] þe felth' - but this is enough for us to locate the recipe in other collections of this kind, such as <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-09308/65'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308</a>, f. 26r, and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DD-00006-00029/105'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.6.29</a>, f. 54r. The latter seems to provide the closest match, and there the two recipes are introduced by the rubric: 'For to make teth white þat arn blake or ȝolowe' (i.e. black or yellow). MS Add. 9309 is especially worthy of note, however, on account of the survival of its medieval, and probably original, binding. It comprises a rigid spine made from a thick strip of leather, attached to which is a rectangular piece of thinner, flexible leather held together in numerous places and along tears by rough stitching. Through this cover and through the spine were punched numerous holes, grouped in rough clusters at four stations. Through these holes have been looped fine leather tackets that were then tied closed with knots. Onto these tackets were then sewn the two quires of paper that comprise this manuscript. Thin strips of parchment, placed along the fold on the outside of the quire and at its centre, and through which the stitching passes, provided the leaves with some additional reinforcement. The leather wrapper was then folded along its short edges, in order to enclose the paper quires. The fold on the part of the wrapper at the back of the manuscript then went around the right-hand part of the front cover. A looped leather thong attached to this flap would have then been placed around a simple toggle or button, probably made also of leather or perhaps bone, attached to the front cover (this has since been lost and only the leather tie remains, now split into two halves). This constituted a practical, and cost-effective, form of binding: it comprised cheap materials, and provided the book with good protection against the elements. The survival of such 'limp' or flexible covers is rare, especially since they were more vulnerable to wear and tear than 'hard' bindings made from wooden boards, and (like those) were also at risk of being disbound and placed into more attractive or robust covers by later collectors and libraries. The quires may have been written on and held together in some temporary way before being bound together in this wrapper. However, we know from other surviving examples that such books could be made up and sold as blanks, a phenomenon that appears to have become increasingly common in the later medieval period, in response to growing demand for the documentation of land holdings, financial accounts and the like, a demand fed by the increasing importation of paper to 15th-century England. Either way, a remarkable characteristic of this binding was its expandability: once all available space had been used up, its owner could purchase further quires and have them sewn onto additional tackets attached to the stiff leather spine, enabling the book to function something like a modern-day ring binder file. Information about the makers, owners and readers of these books is often frustratingly elusive. We might infer that they were owned by practitioners of the healing arts, or 'leeches', who learned medicine not through academic study but empirical experience, perhaps as a sort of apprentice at the side of a master. The use of the vernacular instead of Latin would have made the contents more accessible to such readers. The practical, portable format of the binding suggests that it was intended to be carried around, perhaps on visits to patients. There are examples that appear to have been made professionally (for example, Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308), suggesting the existence of a commercial market for such books - though in the case of the present manuscript it seems more likely that it was made by its intended user. It is written in a cursive script, with almost no decoration (only minor flourishes in the same ink as the text), on pages that have not been ruled for a regular layout. There are some tantalising clues as to who its owners might have been in the form of three, very faded inscriptions: one referring to someone not necessarily the volume's copyist ('Iste liber constant [...] scriptoris', f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(75);return false;'>35v</a>), another similarly recording ownership but where the name is no longer legible ('Iste liber constant [...], <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>inside of the front cover</a>), and a third mentioning the name 'Thomas Wortis leche' (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(76);return false;'>inside of the rear cover</a>, about an inch from the top edge). All three were first noticed in 2023 by Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project. Advanced imaging techniques undertaken by Cambridge University Library's Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory have helped to reveal these inscriptions further, and future analysis may provide further insights. Whether Thomas Wortis may be identified with any individual known in other records remains to be seen.Dr James Freeman Medieval Manuscripts Specialist Cambridge University Library